ghost of miles

Iirc Watson was the one to whom Blakey said, "This isn't the post office."

I’m getting inundated with gambling ads on a variety of baseball sites. To me it’s a plague, though I have several friends and relatives who bet casually. I’ve got enough addictive tendencies as it is and would prefer to keep marshaling that energy and my dollars into books, CDs, and other endeavors. But if I’m gonna make a bet, here’s one that I think’s pretty solid: the gambling problem in sports is only going to get worse.

Taco Bell? (Apologies btw if your HoF remark was sincere and not in snarky jest, as I first interpreted it. Not a fan of that particular uniform, but since I’m not a Padres fan I rarely see it!)

I may have been thinking of spumoni:

A late-night 90-minute talk show hosted by Cannonball that ran on KNBC-Los Angeles for 13 weeks in 1972, following The Tonight Show. Apparently no audio or video survives.

Are those the ones that look like Neapolitan ice cream? They wore those for one of their home games against the Yankees earlier this year. Speaking of the Yankees, or at least one in particular—Aaron Judge in his last 41 games (equal to 1/4 of a season): .403 BA, 21 HRs, 49 RBIs. Via MLB.com: After Judge’s 2-for-4, three-RBI performance Tuesday, the slugger is tied with the Guardians' José Ramírez for the Major League lead in RBIs (62) and leads MLB in on-base percentage (.437), slugging percentage (.712), OPS (1.149) and walks (55). And that’s after he had an absolutely abysmal April. Guy is just incredible to watch.

Thanks for hipping me to this record. Doesn’t appear to have ever been reissued on CD except in Japan about ten years ago? I was hoping that perhaps Fantasy had paired it with another Adderley album on a twofer, but doesn’t appear to be the case. Any rough estimate yet from Scott on when it’s coming out?

Really digging the opening cut “The Scavenger” on this one—has a Coltrane-ish vibe at times and excellent solo from Zawinul:

Looks like Soto and the Yankees may have dodged a bullet. Initial diagnosis is inflammation, which is the best-case scenario. Soto injury update … and while he’s not in tonight’s lineup for the start of the big series with the Dodgers, he has not been put on the IL… at this point, anyway.

Juan Soto removed from tonight’s game after rain delay with “left elbow discomfort.” That’s often a red alert for torn UCL/TJS. A huge blow to NY’s offensive prowess and postseason chances if it proves to be the case.

Via a Yankee stats account that uses Baseball Reference’s Stathead Streak Finder tool: Yankee rookie Luis Gil is the first pitcher since 1901 to throw 6 innings with 5 H or fewer and 1 R or fewer in seven straight games. On another note, happy to see old friend Luis Severino doing well crosstown with the Mets.

Gunn, the 1967 movie. Apparently on the racy side of YouTube’s viewing standards.

Starting my second time around for this one.

Disc 4, full of prime live late 1930s Basie band broadcasts.

Revisiting this while reading the new 33 1/3 book about it:

I second that emotion! Thanks for posting.

Bob Crosby *has* been a strong possibility, but I haven’t asked Scott about it lately. There was a late 1940s/early 50s Ellington in the works that Sony greenlit and then pulled the plug on. Something similar happened to a proposed Benny Goodman 1940s Columbia small-groups set.

Joshua Diemert at Pinstripe Alley agrees: Robo challenge … sounds good to me, and seems similar to what iirc Dan has advocated for. Will give teams and batters a chance to reverse the obviously blown calls while preserving fluidity for borderline calls and framing. Bring it on, the sooner the better. No love lost here for bad umpiring.

Great indeed!

So yesterday former Yankee pitcher Orlando Hernandez, aka El Duque, threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Yankee Stadium and took some photos with Yankee rookie and game starter Luis Gil. Gil went on to rack up 14 strikeouts in 6 IP, breaking El Duque’s team record for most K’s by a rookie in a single game. I love it when things like that happen—reminiscent of David Cone’s perfect game as a Yankee back in 1999. The ceremonial first pitch that day was thrown out by Don Larsen. (As a bonus, Larsen had been chosen because it was Yogi Berra Day, and Yogi was returning to the stadium for the first time in 14 years after being fired by George Steinbrenner 16 games into the 1985 season.) El Duque and Luis Gil